English

New for Aspiring Doctors, the People Skills Test

At Virginia Tech Carilion a new admissions test is underway for applicants at the medical school. In addition to the standard college admissions material, Virginia Tech Carilion has decided to accept students based on their people skills. To do this, the school uses what is called the multiple mini interview (MMI). Aspiring applicants wait outside a room with their back facing the door. Once signaled, the applicants then have two minutes to read the ethical dilemma posted on the door. An example of a sample question for the interview includes whether pediatricians should support circumcision. After the two minutes are over, the applicants are signaled to enter, and then they discuss the situation with the interviewer for eight minutes. Afterward, the applicants move on to the next room to repeat the process.

The MMI process is used in about eight medical schools across the US and 13 schools in Canada. It was developed according to research that showed interviewers are less likely to change their opinions after five minutes, having many interviewers eliminates bias, and situational interviews are more likely to bring out undesirable personality traits. Interviewers assess the applicants based on their response to an opposing opinion, their compliance with teamwork, and their overall people and communication skills. Applicants’ scores from the MMI process have been foretelling about their scores on future medical exams that test similar social skills.

The school decided to focus on communication skills in the admissions process for several reasons. Medical practices have changed from an individual mentality to a team oriented one. It is expected that doctors will work with a team of other doctors and/or nurses for patient care. There are also a large number of deaths that result from a doctor’s poor social skills interfering with both his patient and his coworkers. This has also led to incorrect operations and treatment. Virginia Tech Carilion hopes to reduce this number by selecting good candidates through the MMI in the admissions process and by offering mandatory teamwork classes to continue to refine their skills.

[1]nuvo (new) is a noun derived from the adjective nuva (new) and means ‘new one.’ The noun form must be used when the word stands alone and does not modify a following noun.

[2]vonperson-skilway testimo (people skills test) is a noun phrase using the complex adjective vonperson-skilway (of skills related to people) formed by combining the complex adjective vonpersona (about people) with the noun skilo (skill). The –a ending from vonpersona is dropped and the root is hyphenated to the root skil- to form a complex Type II relational adjective. The noun testimo is derived from the verb testare (to test) and has the suffix -im- to denote a written or hard-copy version of an action.

[3]admitajay testimo (admissions test) is a noun phrase using the Type I relational adjective admitajay (of an admitting procedure).

[4]ninatcyats (is underway) is the present perfective tense of the becomeative verb form belonging to the intransitive/transitive verb pair natc(y/w)are (to begin/ to (cause to) begin) and means ‘has begun.’

[25]iyo (one) is a class membership pronoun which substitutes for the noun mentalitato and translates ‘one’ in English.

[26]hoca (large) is an adjective that precedes a quantity word like number, mass, etc.

[27]interferats (interfering with) is a verb meaning ‘interfere with’ and includes the preposition ‘with’ in the meaning of the verb.

[28]selegare (select) is an infinitive that translates the English gerund.

[29]ekipepracajway klaseoy (teamwork classes) is a noun phrase using the complex relational adjective ekipepracajway in which the roots are joined by the infix -e-, which is equivalent to Type I relational adjective modification (ekipay pracajo->ekipracaj-), and then the Type II relational adjective ending -way is added so that the entire phrase translates as ‘classes whose content is teamwork’.